Vinoba Bhave University has paved the way for seven Dhanbad colleges to share facilities and mentors to tide over a crisis of teachers, the one problem that plagues almost all institutes of higher education in the state.

Singh said he conceptualised the idea to cope with the perennial shortage of teachers and also tackle various infrastructural deficiencies of colleges, like well-stocked libraries and well-equipped laboratories.

“Transferring teachers from one college to another is a cumbersome affair. Besides financial implications, there are other complications associated with it,” he told The Telegraph.

Now, with the common resource pool, he explained, the problem of teachers’ shortage could easily be resolved with mentors from one college moving to another to take classes on some days.

Apart from using the existing network of teachers, VBU has asked them to tap into the expertise of retired teachers and officers associated with Dhanbad’s many companies and academic, engineering and research institutions, like Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL), Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), Tata Steel, Maithon Power Limited (MPL), Associated Cement Company (ACC) and Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC).

Singh said he was in favour ad hoc appointment of teachers, especially those who had worked in various business and academic establishments.

“The presence of experts in large number of industries in Dhanbad can be gainfully utilised to cope with the scarcity of teachers. We can make ad hoc appointments,” he said, adding that they would be paid at the rate of Rs 1,000 per hour with a maximum of Rs 25,000 per month.

“We also have plans to share infrastructure facilities of each college like libraries and laboratories. Students of one college can visit a well-equipped library of another,” he said.

Some colleges in the heart of the city have initiated steps to share teachers.

A Bengali teacher at SSLNT Women’s College is taking classes at PK Roy Memorial College, which is thinking of making ad hoc appointments in geology and geography departments.

Principal of PK Roy Memorial College D.K. Verma said, “We could not admit students in undergraduate courses of geology and geography due to lack of teachers.”

Now, the college plans to start admissions after appointing ad hoc teachers.